The latest news on this front comes from a really interesting new report from the U.S. government agency, the National Endowment for Democracy. Take a look at this excerpt:

This report describes the ways in which authoritarian countries seek to use think tanks as instruments of sharp power, focusing specifically on why and how authoritarian powers target foreign private organizations dedicated to policy-related research.

Authoritarian think tanks operate much like their democratic counterparts—organizing public conferences and events, publishing research in academic journals and on their websites, and sharing analyses with media outlets. But the antiliberal and antidemocratic political systems to which these entities belong repress any form of dissent and claim control over the discursive and ideational space. The overall effect lends regime-backed narratives an artificial legitimacy. Democratic think tanks and other civil society stakeholders have a critical role to play in strengthening democratic resilience and countering authoritarian attempts to undermine intellectual freedom.

Read the full article here. Nadège Rolland is the “senior fellow for political and security affairs at the National Bureau of Asian Research and nonresident fellow at the Lowy Institute”. Also, visit the main Democracy Chronicles section on World Democracy or our articles on Worldwide Corruption.